Tower and Town, April 2016

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Life Here And Herafter

Re-printed from the March 2001 edition

I was born in 1912 so have been here a long time. I have been blessed with good health apart from nearly dying on two occasions – at two and half with measles and bronchitis and in my nineteenth year with double pneumonia. This was in the days when the chest was poulticed with kaolin – penicillin not yet having been discovered.

It is wonderful to have lived so long. Every day is a bonus. What a marvellous world this is with birdsong, the changing of the seasons, the beauty of the flowers and trees, glorious music, the love of one's friends and so many exciting things to do in retirement.

Of course at my age one wonders how long one will be here and what life after death will be like. The older one gets the more vivid the possibilities become! My first thought is that whatever shape my body will take or none, I shall arrive on that distant shore just as I am with all my faults of commission and omission. When I was a child it was said that the Good Lord had a big book in which all one's faults were recorded! Since I have always known that it was a possibility that I would be answerable for my mistakes, I have no fear!! I think it will be wonderful to meet up with my family and friends and others who have preceded me – in fact it will be very exciting. I do not subscribe to the theory that one will be idle. I'm sure the Good Lord has work for us all to do. There will be leisure of course to listen to lovely music.

Grace Denman